The Egyptian film industry…

15-12-2011 09:05 AM

Fady Labib

WATANI International

25 April 2010

For some time now the Egyptian film industry has been encountering difficult challenges. First and foremost are acts of piracy, with films being literally stolen to be aired on the Internet leading to enormous losses for producers. However sophisticated the new techniques, they have failed to prevent piracy, and this necessitates the enactment of a law to protect intellectual property and the formation of an agency charged with combating piracy.

In the kiosks
Issaad Younis, the CEO of Arabia Cinema, says a host of factors contribute to the industry’s crisis, not least of which was stealing films and Internet piracy. She said films were frequently stolen from cinemas a few days after screening.
In one case, Ms Younis says, a film was stolen and aired on the web the day it was first screened. “It was downloaded 500,000 times in no more than 24 hours.”
Facebook is among the piracy venues, since users put links to download films. “Although we manage to recognise the pirates,” Ms Younis says, “We are unable to catch them given the absence of cooperation on the part of all the parties concerned, public and private alike. A recently-screened film is now available in kiosks, and even State-owned petrol stations.” She says the government falls short of assuming its role regarding the combat of the illegal trading of films.
She hopes Egyptians will stand up to piracy, and says that the government should follow in the footsteps of their British counterparts and raise people’s awareness of the harm of piracy on the future of the Egyptian film industry.
Ink on paper
Hussein Amin, professor of journalism at the American University in Cairo. says that in Egypt piracy of films and audio-visual works in general accounts for more than 40 per cent of the works on the market. When it comes to Microsoft products the proportion rises to 63 per cent. Dr Amin regrets that the anti-piracy law remains just ink on paper. “Intellectual property infringements should be combated and violators should be tried. Arab countries have to cooperate in protecting intellectual property and artists’ rights. Because piracy eats into the profits, it contributes to the financial crisis facing the film industry,” he says.
Eyad Labib, the CEO of Brainwaves, stresses that film piracy poses a major threat to the industry. “Producers have become much more hesitant before taking a decision to produce a film, since piracy places their earnings in jeopardy,” he says. “Similar to the situation in advanced countries, rules should be set in Egypt to limit piracy and enhance our status among the world’s cinema producers.”
Mr Labib calls for putting watermarks on all visual works and enhancing security measures in places where stealing films is frequent.

Backward thought
Yet piracy is not the only—even if a major—obstacle shackling the Egyptian film industry. According to Ms Younis, backward and ultra-conservative ideas pose a major obstacle to creativity, and impose a plethora of restrictions on filmmakers. “The media should allow room for expressing different ideas, including those breaking with mainstream culture,” she says. “Diversity of ideas is pivotal if Egyptian cinema and TV production are to improve. Film makers should be free to make works that express various perceptions and thoughts, without being branded as immoral or deviant.”

Reaching Out

Watani started as an Egyptian weekly Sunday newspaper published in Cairo. The word Watani is Arabic for “My Homeland”. The paper was founded in 1958 by the prominent Copt Antoun Sidhom (1915 – 1995), who strove for the establishment of a civil, democratic society in Egypt, where all Egyptians would enjoy full citizenship rights regardless of their religious denomination. To this day when Watani is published as a weekly paper and an online news site, the objective remains the same. Those in charge of Watani view this role as a patriotic all-Egyptian vocation. Special attention is given to shedding light on Coptic culture and tradition as authentically Egyptian, this being a topic largely disregarded or little-understood by Egypt’s media. Watani is deeply dedicated to offer its readers high quality, extensive, objective, credible and well-researched media coverage, with special focus on Coptic issues, culture, heritage, and contribution to Egyptian society.